Rising COVID-19 cases in Africa are “especially concerning” because the region has the least amount of access to vaccines, diagnostics and oxygen, said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Together with the spread of more transmissible variants this increases the continent’s mortality rate among critically ill COVID-19 patients, he told reporters in a briefing Monday.

“Right now the virus is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines,” he said. Public health and social measures may need to be “more stringent and applied for longer” in areas where vaccination rates remain low, he said.

Only 2.8 percent of Africa’s population is inoculated, compared with a global average of 14.5 percent.